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/ 11 February 2004
Haitian police retook three towns from rebels battling President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the government pledged to win back control of all territory lost during battles that have left at least 42 dead in five days. The United Nations has warned that Haiti faces a major humanitarian crisis.
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/ 11 February 2004
Former security police colonel Gideon Niewoudt has been arrested and charged for the deaths of the so-called Pebco Three in 1985, the Scorpions said on Wednesday. The Scorpions arrested Niewoudt in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday morning. He later briefly appeared in the city’s Magistrate’s Court and was released on R50 000 bail.
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/ 11 February 2004
Thousands of supporters have signed a petition that Botswana’s Gana and Gwi Bushmen be allowed to return to their ancestral land, a human rights spokesperson said on Wednesday. The petition, containing 100 000 signatures, will be handed to Botswana consulates and embassies this week.
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/ 11 February 2004
Media organisations in Zambia are staging a five-day campaign this week to lobby for the proposed Freedom of Information Bill to be brought before the current session of Parliament. This follows government claims that the law needs to be revised.
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/ 11 February 2004
”White Wolf” Barend Strydom is to testify for the defence in the Boeremag treason trial, the Pretoria High Court was told on Wednesday. Daan Mostert, appearing for one of the accused, Adriaan van Wyk, told the court he intended calling the far-rightwinger as a witness for the defence.
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/ 11 February 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>South African President Thabo Mbeki told Parliament on Wednesday afternoon that the upcoming April election will be a test of whether doomsday theories about the failure of the economy are true. Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon on Monday said for millions "life [in South Africa] is actually worse" than in 1994.
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/ 11 February 2004
The National Prosecuting Authority has emerged as a stronger organisation following the Hefer commission, National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka said on Wednesday. ”We faced one of the toughest public tests any organisation can face. This does not happen with many institutions, especially not with organs of state,” said Ngcuka.
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/ 11 February 2004
Africa’s urban poor, often struggling to eke out a living in unplanned and expanding shanty communities, are at the back of the queue for water and sewerage services. But, as recent serious outbreaks of cholera in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe have demonstrated, the lack of access to safe water and proper sanitation are critical public health issues.
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/ 11 February 2004
A moderate earthquake rattled a swath of the Middle East early on Wednesday, sending jitters throughout the region and causing minor damage to Israel’s Parliament. No injuries were immediately reported. High-rise buildings in Tel Aviv, shopping malls and schools throughout the country were evacuated.
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/ 11 February 2004
In the children’s ward at the Samawa hospital in Iraq, the stench of dried sweat and raw waste is almost unbearable. Mothers, dressed head to foot in black robes, sit cross-legged on the floor or beds, cradling children as many drift slowly into death. ”We have nothing. Most children die, especially in winter,” said a junior doctor.